Dogs of War

Summary: Max and Alec are finally starting to get everything up and running in TC when missions start going horribly wrong...

So... Gordon's in trouble...

Chapter Ten

Alec blurred through the door to Command and skidded to a halt with Max still at his side. "Mole," Alec called, breathing harder than should have been necessary for a transgenic, "please, tell me we can get a location on Secretary Gordon."

"What? Why?" Mole asked, even as he turned toward Dix and Luke to make sure they began work on the request.

"Zip says they've put a hit out on him and they're gonna pin it on us."

Mole's cigar wobbled as the ramifications hit him. "After the other crap, that'll be enough to convince the government we're too dangerous. They'll take us out."

"So find him before he's dead," Max snapped.

"He could be anywhere," Alec remarked, thinking out loud. It wasn't like Gordon's sole purpose was to deal with the transgenics and their ongoing disasters. He was the Homeland Security Secretary and with the shape the world was in, he was a busy man.

"We know he's still in the city," Mole countered. "He's been hanging around since the attempt on the mayor. Thankfully, Max got shot and the press kinda forgot all about the mayor."

"Yeah, thankfully," Max said waspishly.

"I'm just tellin' it like it is," Mole returned. "Gordon knows something's up. His people have been trying to set up another meet, probably to fire us, but we've been putting him off." Mole shrugged. "After Max got shot, he wanted to talk to Alec and uh… you were outta commission."

"Just gets better and better," Max muttered.

"Logan was supposed to meet with Gordon." Alec remembered how annoyed he'd been at the other man's newest attempt to worm his way back into transgenic business and Max's heart. "Did that already happen? While we were… gone?"

"The ape hasn't said anything," Mole answered, "but then he spent most of the last couple of days at the hospital with Fearless Leader, here."

Alec turned toward Max keeping his expression passive. "That so?"

Max's eyes narrowed. "I can't control who's there when I'm unconscious, now, can I?" She walked closer to him and got right in his face. "I walked straight out of the hospital, against doctor's orders, to get you," she said under her breath. "So you are not gonna give me any crap about Logan being there. Understand?"

Alec just nodded. It was his fault anyway. It should have been him at her side. If he hadn't been such a head case, he might have got off his ass and come back to TC and found out what had actually happened to Max.

Alec had been absolutely certain that he killed her. To be honest, he still wasn't sure how she'd survived, although he was beyond grateful. He might even try to be grateful to Logan for being there for Max when he couldn't. He wasn't yet, but maybe one day.

"You're right," he said quietly. "No crap." He pushed the guilt down, locking it up tight, and blanked his expression. He had to protect Max and that meant keeping his distance. No matter how badly he wanted to bury his hands in her dark hair, lose himself in her arms, strip her naked to assure himself she was healing and then worship every square inch of that body with his own to try to atone for the sin of harming someone he loved so much, and then abandoning her care to others and to Logan.

Max frowned. "I wish I knew what was going on in that idiot head of yours."

Alec took a step back despite the implication that he was retreating. He allowed his lips to curl up on one side. "Just wishing I had a drink."

"Sure you do," Max scoffed. "Cause all you care about is booze and money."

Alec raised an eyebrow. "So I'm told."

Max grabbed a fistful of his shirt and jerked him down so they were eye level. "This thing you're doing is pissing me off," she said through clenched teeth. "I'm gonna let it go for now because we have bigger problems, but once we're done, you and me are gonna have words. If I'd wanted the smart ass I met back at Manticore, I'd never have worked so hard to whip you into shape."

Alec couldn't help it. He broke into a full smirk. "You callin' me whipped, Max?"

"I'm callin' you a dumbass who's hiding from me in plain sight," she bit out, "and I'm gonna knock your teeth out if you keep it up."

Alec sighed, dropping the smirk. "It's better this way and you know it."

"We don't have time for this." Max released him, shoving him a little harder than was necessary. She turned back toward Luke and Dix who were still searching and Alec wanted desperately to reach out and pull her back. Just the thought of letting her go was ripping him in half.

He saw now why Max had found it so difficult to push Logan away. After the last infection scare, she'd known it was the right thing to do, that it was too dangerous, and Alec felt the same conviction now. He was too dangerous for her to be near and he was going to have to leave, but the sight of her walking away… She was like a siren, her song beckoning him to follow wherever she would lead, even if it was to his doom.

"I've got a route of travel on Gordon's car," Dix announced to the room at large. "Let me pull up the hover-drones and see if I can find it."

"I need a phone," Alec said.

Several of the others in Command looked up and then quickly looked away. Mole walked toward him, a scowl firmly in place. "You know I can't. Not until Tipper's people say you're totally clear."

Alec rapidly developed a scowl of his own. Yeah, he did know. As a matter of fact, the thought of holding a phone made him nauseous.

"Fine." His teeth were clenched so tightly, Alec could feel the muscles in his jaw jumping. "Call Logan. Ask him about his meeting with Gordon."

Mole huffed past his cigar, but finally nodded. He pulled out his own cell and dialed, all the while muttering under his breath about why he had to be the one to call the ape. Alec shrugged mentally. It was good for him. Mole had serious trust issues with ordinaries, not that they weren't often justified. Plus, it was just fun to make Mole do things that pissed him off.

"Hello?"

"We need to find Gordon," Mole said without preamble. "You meet with him already?"

"I'm just pulling up to the meeting with him now," Logan answered. "I have to go. I'll tell you how it goes as soon as it's over," he added and hung up.

Mole pulled the phone away from his ear and just stared at it as if he could make the thing explode with the power of his glare.

"Somebody get a locate on Logan's phone," Alec ordered. "And I need my team ready to go in five."

"No way," Max said, stalking toward him. "You're not going."

Everyone in Command quickly averted their eyes. They knew very well not to get between them when a fight was brewing.

"My team knows every nook and cranny of this city, Max. If the crap hits the fan, we're the ones who can handle it."

"You're barely standing," she shot back. "You really think you're gonna be able to do any good out there?"

"In case you didn't notice, there's an entire army of news vans parked at our gates. They're just dying to get our take on what happened. All they know is that you were shot and now you're not in the hospital. We need people who can get around this town and not be seen. That is my crew," he argued. "It's what they were chosen for. We have the sneakiest DNA Manticore could come up with."

Max's nostrils flared, and Alec had the insane thought that she might have some rabbit DNA. Her nose twitched when she was pissed at him. "Fine. They can go. But not you."

Alec looked around the room and saw Slick nonchalantly leaning near the doorway, seemingly unaware of his bosses fighting. "Slick, quit standing there. Round up the team."

"Logan's in a restaurant," Dix called loudly to get their attention. "Not sure which one. I can only pinpoint the phone within a few hundred feet, but that whole strip on 3rd is restaurants for the rich and shameless."

Alec turned toward Slick again. "Meet me at tunnel 2 as soon as you get everyone." Slick nodded and blurred out the door.

Alec took a quick internal inventory. Exhaustion. Check. Gnawing hunger. Check. Brain overload. Check. Paralyzing heartache. Check. Sincere need to kick someone's ass. Double check. Alec was going to find out who these people were who'd been sent to kill Gordon and he was going to follow the chain back to the person on the other end of Zip's phone calls. Max wasn't going to like it, but in order to protect her, he had to save Gordon and he had to get himself away from her. This plan would do both.

"You are not going," Max said again.

"They're my team," he replied seriously. "We're sneakiest when we work together. And don't try to tell me you're going, either. You're barely out of the hospital, and you won't be able to move with us." Max glared, but he ignored it. "Not to mention that the media will be all over it, if anyone gets a glimpse of you."

"You either," she snapped. "You're the one who plastered yourself all over the TV after the riot."

"Yeah, but I don't have any holes in me at the moment," he said, his eyes dropping briefly to her chest and then back up.

"That can be easily changed," she warned, but Alec saw she was weakening.

He stepped very close and put his hands on her shoulders, leaning forward so that they were almost touching. "Let me do this, Max," he pleaded. "I know I'm tired, but these people… what they did… to us…" His voice broke and he cursed himself for resorting to honesty to get his way. "I need to do this, Maxie. I'm just tired. That's all."

Max only shook her head. She had to know that short of tying him up again, he was going. And tying him up would just mean it would take him a few extra minutes to get out and get to his team.

"I need my gun," Alec said, stepping back from her. "Who's got it?"

Once again Mole approached him, this time stopping at a drawer and withdrawing Alec's pistol. The last time he'd seen it, it had been knocked out of his hand right after he'd shot Max. Looking at it made him want to throw up, but he held out his hand to take it. It was no more the fault of the gun than it had been his fault. They were both mindless weapons that Manticore had used yet again. Of course, that didn't mean they weren't dangerous in their own right. Alec had every intention of personally informing these people of just how much he didn't appreciate having his choices taken away from him.

Alec looked at Mole and smirked. "Is it wrong that you'll give me a gun, but not a cell phone?"

Mole grunted. "I don't care who you shoot," he said. "I just don't want to have to hear you talk anymore. If I have my way, you're never getting another cell phone."

"Can't get your cigars if I can't call my supplier," Alec sing-songed.

Mole thought about it for half a second. "I've been wanting to give them up. Health reasons." He grinned widely, white teeth flashing around his cigar.

Alec snorted, but his amusement quickly fled. He needed to leave. "You'll keep her safe?" he asked, his eyes glancing toward Max.

"As if that's possible?" Mole said, but he nodded anyway.

Alec accepted it as the best he could hope for and headed for the door.

Max and Mole stood side by side watching Alec leave. As soon as the door shut, Mole turned toward her. "So you going or not?" he asked.

"Is that even a question?" she responded, eyebrows rising high.

He grunted and she wasn't sure if it was in amusement or simply in resignation. "Don't get killed. And don't let Gordon get killed."

Max simply headed for the door. "That's the plan."

More soon...